We are National AIDS Trust.
We’re the UK’s HIV rights charity. We work to stop HIV from standing in the way of health, dignity and equality, and to end new HIV transmissions. We stand alongside and defend the rights of everyone living with, affected by or at risk of HIV. And we won’t stop until everyone affected by HIV can live their fullest life possible.
Our strategic aims to 2025:
- STOP: we will stop new HIV infections
- CHAMPION: we will champion the needs of people whose voices and experiences are too often ignored
- PROTECT: we will protect the rights of everyone living with and at risk of HIV
- DRIVE: we will drive engagement and activism to change attitudes to HIV.
Since 1987 our work has kept HIV on the agenda, driving change, and improving the lives of people affected by HIV.
Our work is values-led and embedded in our community. We understand that HIV is much more than a health condition, so our approach to combatting its effects and stopping new transmissions is wide-ranging. Tying this work together is our belief that health is a human right. Our success relies on our expertise, our credibility, our independence, and our strong relationships with allies.
Our expertise, research and advocacy secure lasting change to the lives of people living with and at risk of HIV. We do this by:
- Working closely with MPs, policy-makers, the NHS and other HIV organisations.
- Changing the law.
- Helping people fight back against unfair and discriminatory treatment.
- Challenging the media on how it reports HIV.
- Working with community grassroots groups to involve their voices in conversations about HIV.
- Telling positive stories about people living with HIV.
- Educating young people about HIV.
Change We’ve Made Happen:
- PrEP(pre-exposure prophylaxis), the HIV prevention medication, is available for free on the NHS because of our work. We took the NHS to court to make sure they provide PrEP in 2016, winning the case and subsequent appeal. More than 86,000 people are now being prescribed PrEP via the NHS.
- We launched a groundbreaking HIV Commission with Terrence Higgins Trust and Elton John AIDS Foundation, and its recommendations provided the groundwork for the Government’s HIV Action Plan. Following our joint campaigning, routine opt-out HIV testing in hospital emergency departments has been commissioned in all areas of high HIV prevalence in England.
- Following our joint work with the Terrence Higgins Trust, the Ministry of Defence changed its rules to allow people living with HIV, or taking PrEP, to join the Armed Forces and serve on the front lines.
- Through our campaigning and joint work with BHIVA (the HIV clinician’s organisation) the government agreed to change outdated laws on fertility treatment so that same sex couples (where one or both is living with HIV) will be able to have a child through fertility treatments.
- Pre-employment health questionnaires are illegal – so employers can’t decide whether to offer a job based on HIV or any other health status.
- HIV is recognised as a disability in the Equality Act, leading to a host of legal protections.
- Welfare benefit assessments can now take into account fluctuating conditions such as HIV.
- Following our joint work with Doctors of the World, the NHS and Home Office no longer share data for immigration tracing purposes.
- More new parents can access free formula milk to avoid HIV transmission.